Paucity of funds stalls hospital project in Ayodhya mosque

Paucity of funds has made the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) Trust, which is handling the construction of a mosque in Ayodhya's Dhannipur, to defer the construction of a hospital there for now.

The Trust is handling a mega project under which a mosque, a charity hospital and a community kitchen are supposed to be built in Dhannipur—where the UP Waqf Board was granted land by the Uttar Pradesh government after the Supreme Court verdict on Ram Mandir in 2019.

Athar Hussain secretary, IICF, said on Wednesday, "As of now, the Trust has only Rs 50 lakh for starting the construction of the mosque. So, the project will be taken up in phases. The total budget of the project is Rs 300 crore. Of it, around Rs 10 crore is to be spent on the construction of the mosque and the rest on other projects."

"In the first phase, the Trust is targeting construction of a mosque only in a 3,500 square metre area. However, the proposed construction of a four-storey super specialty charity hospital and a community kitchen in 24,150 square metres, a museum in 500 square metres and Indo-Islamic Research Centre in 2,300 square metres may be delayed as the Trust is not getting funds as expected," Hussain added.

"The capacity of the proposed hospital would be 100 beds that will be enhanced to 200 beds later. Similarly, food will be cooked daily for 1,000 poor people in the community kitchen which will later be expanded to be able to feed 2,000 people," he said.

"We have submitted a new map of the mosque to the Ayodhya Development Authority (ADA) as per the change in plan," Hussain added. In March this year, the ADA passed the map of a mosque, a hospital, a research institute, a community kitchen and a library on five acres of land given in Dhannipur village.

The map was passed after completing formalities over a period of two years. Now, it will take another few days before the new map is passed. "After the new map is approved, we will start the construction of the mosque. The construction of the mosque will take at least a year," Hussain said.

On November 9, 2019, the Supreme Court in its landmark verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case had ordered to give the disputed site for the construction of the temple and granted five acres of land in Ayodhya to the Muslims for the construction of a mosque.

The district administration had given Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board land in Dhannipur village in Sohawal tehsil, some 25 km from the Ram Temple site, in compliance with the verdict. The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation Trust was formed by the Waqf Board in July 2020 to oversee the construction of the mosque. The Trust later decided to use the land to build a charity hospital, a community kitchen, a library, and a research institute also.